The enveloping Mono Modern is a boundary-pushing conceptual full-length from South Carolina’s Xeno Ray JNB. Fusing industrial glitch with experimental hip-hop, the self-produced record tackles technological burnout and racial identity, weaving haunting, human-made textures into a narrative about creative authenticity.
Citing influences like Radiohead, Prince, and Kendrick Lamar, the artist elaborates that the release is “adopting its technological and anxiety ridden theme and turning it into my own but with a mid 2020’s twist about artists who feel creatively burned out by AI, Whitewashing of black American culture, modern society, quick dopamine, and algorithmic machines plotting on small creators.”
An enthralling, haunting opener, “Mono’s Mona” infuses glimmering synths and ghostly vocals. “Why don’t you look at me?” a heartrending presence lets out amidst gentle trickling and spacey synths, reminding of modern Nick Cave in its solemn, electronic-infused intrigue. A cavernous yet effervescent shift takes hold around the track’s midpoint, melding with murky vocals for a gorgeously nocturnal entrancement. The ensuing “Everything is Chrome” struts a more immediate rhythmic power, reminiscent of Yves Tumor in its warbled vocal layers and pulsing rhythmic backbone.
An industrial, funk-tinged electro-pop sound follows, charming with an individual aesthetical ethos; it retains the oddball electronic capabilities of the project’s overall vision, while adding a funky vigor in the rhythms and twangy guitar tone. Another standout track, impressing throughout all 9+ minutes, “Polystean / Tie Dye Fishies” commences with riveting vocal harmonies, woozy and immersive in the “her name was…” push. The track’s dynamic tonal range is captivating, especially around the four-minute mark, where eerie ambient effects and “welcome to class” salutations shift seamlessly into vibrant, catchy synths and avant-garde, daily-grind hip-hop perspectives. Mono Modern is an inventive, thoroughly consuming success of an album from Xeno Ray JNB.
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“Mono’s Mona” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
The post Xeno Ray JNB – ‘Mono Modern’ appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.
